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Currently the banking sector in Thailand is almost exclusively made up of big Thai banks (Bangkok Bank, KASIKORNBANK and Siam Commercial Bank being the main players). In Bangkok the international banks Standard Chartered, HSBC and Citibank have main branches in the Central Business District. However, the Thai banking sector is undergoing a liberalization phase and it is expected that foreign banks will have more of a presence here shortly - starting with Standard Chartered Bank's Thai entity: Standard Chartered Nakornthon Bank.

Strictly speaking, foreigners cannot open a bank account in Thailand without a work permit. Practically speaking, banks allow foreigners to open savings accounts, but checking accounts can only be opened if you have a work permit. Checks can, however, be paid into savings accounts and check clearing takes one and half days. Foreigners are also free to open foreign currency accounts, but are subject to Thailand's foreign exchange rules.

Remitting money into and from a bank account in Thailand is no problem (using the SWIFT system); however, with large transactions you are usually asked to produce documentation to explain why the money is being remitted to comply with Thailand's money laundering rules.

Normally there is no charge for having a bank account in Thailand, but interest rates are very low (currently less than 1%).

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